No post for three days as Royal Mail cuts bite

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.campbeltowncourier.co.uk/new ... _bite.html

Published: 28 September, 2007

CHANGES to the Royal Mail delivery service to reduce costs could see Kintyre experiencing delays in their postal service.

Industrial strikes are also planned for October which will also add to the disruption.

The Sunday delivery service will be cut from October 28, and new EU regulations, which put limits on driver’s hours and the speeds of certain types of vehicles mean that mail will be held up, both on the mainland and the islands.

Alan Reid, Liberal Democrat MP for Argyll and Bute has criticised the Government for allowing Royal Mail to end Sunday collections and has also written to both the Royal Mail Chief Executive and Transport Secretary about the delays to the service.

He said: ‘These delays to the mail are totally unacceptable. The Royal Mail Service is getting worse and worse. It was far better a hundred years ago!

‘I have written to both Royal Mail Chief Executive Adam Crozier and Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly telling them that this worsening of the service cannot be allowed.

‘The Royal Mail spokesperson told me that it would hold-up the mail everywhere. The delays will be less on the mainland, but will still hold up deliveries.’

Kintyre posties joined in postal strikes during July by picketing outside Campbeltown Sorting Office as part of a national campaign to stop Royal Mail’s cost-cutting business plans. And the Communication Workers Union (CWU) believed this would lead to the cuts happening in the postal service next month.

No Sunday service

Stopping the Sunday service will mean no mail will be collected between Saturday morning and Monday morning, and on bank holiday weekends there will be a three day gap between collections.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: ‘Royal Mail operates in a fully competitive postal market and needs to work efficiently to ensure its customers continue to receive high quality of service into the future. Royal Mail collects from 115,000 post boxes Monday to Saturday and from just 18,000 postboxes on Sundays.

‘Demand for a Sunday service, introduced in 1990, is limited and accounts for less than one per cent of all mail posted each week - and the small volumes means it costs four times as much to handle this mail than items collected on other days.’

Mr Reid thinks this is yet another nail in the coffin of a universal postal service. He said: ‘It is outrageous that mail will not be collected between Saturday morning and Monday morning. On bank holiday weekends there will be a three day gap between collections.

‘This Government is destroying what was once a first-class postal service.’

In October there will be two 48-hour strikes planned for October 5 and 6, and October 8 and 9.

[Bloke7]

"..costs four times as much to handle this mail than items collected on other days"

Bzzttt! Budget does not compute! Must...take...more...hours...out...Bzzt!!

Money over service.

The great mantra of a world gone mad.

[peedofpostie]

good to see that some mps can see what we see that :lfo :cfo are destroying a once first class service

[coppertop]

Messers L&C are really trying to bankrupt us they cut cut cut but you never hear either of them telling us how many contracts that they have actually won. But lets be honest hear if we did it would mean they would have to work

[borders]

This Government is destroying what was once a first-class postal service.’
He has hit the nail on the head there, a first class service is being run down by these capitalist parasites, this is a Government that has all our best interests at heart !!?? dont make me laugh

[dogfood]

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: ‘Royal Mail operates in a fully competitive postal market and needs to work efficiently to ensure its customers continue to receive high quality of service into the future.

That high quality service equates to none then. Tosser.